Houston Marathon notes: High number of ailing runners

Published 6:30 am, Monday, January 18, 2010

Ailing runners

Despite the almost ideal weather conditions — or perhaps because of same — the marathon’s medical staff found itself confronted with a surprising number of serious ailments Sunday, although none were said to be life-threatening.

Dr. John Cianca, the medical director, reported to race director Brant Kotch that 11 runners required what Kotch termed "critical care," and seven of those were taken to area hospitals. Two "had cardiac implications," Kotch said Cianca told him.

"And one of them needed resuscitation on the course," Kotch said.

"It’s a bit of a conumdrum," he added, "considering the banner day weather-wise that we had. It’s strictly speculation on my part, but maybe the conditions made people go out harder than they should. People stressed themselves too much. Dr. Cianca definitely left me with the impression that we had a higher per-capita percentage of problems today than we expected."

Citing privacy issues, Kotch said he couldn’t release the names of the ailing. Cianca is to provide him with a final update Monday.

Biggio gets ’em going

Biggio had the honor of firing the start gun Sunday morning. But it wasn’t the only reason why Biggio was downtown at 7 a.m.

His wife, Patty, was running the half marathon and posted a chip time of 2:08:58.

"I can’t go back to bed just yet," Biggio said. "I have to wait a bit until she finishes, but it’s all good."

Just don’t expect to see him running a marathon any time soon.

"For me, not yet," Biggio said. "Ninety feet was good."

Hail Ethiopia

Phoenix’s Arizona Rock n’ Roll races on Sunday also produced Ethiopian champions in both the men’s and women’s marathons. A Teyba — Teyba Naser — won there, too, running a 2:30:09, considerably slower than Teyba Erkesso’s course record 2:23:53 in Houston.

Terefe Yea was the men’s champion in Phoenix, running a 2:12:41 — also far behind Teshome Gelana’s 2:07:37. Gelana was supposed to compete to Phoenix, but it was decided the faster competition here gave him a better chance to run a personal best and set a course record in the process.

Then, of course, there was also the money factor. Gelana and Erkesso each pocketed $45,000 compared to the $17,500 paid to Phoenix’s champs.

Comparing the women’s half marathon winners, Houston’s Shalane Flanagan (1:09:41) just nosed out Phoenix’s Deena Kastor (1:09:43). Both are former Olympic bronze medalists — Flanagan in the 10,000 meters in 2008 and Kastor in the marathon in Athens in 2004.

So, in the end, bigger wasn’t better. Some 32,000 ran the Phoenix marathons and half marathons, compared to just under 26,000 in Houston. Phoenix presumably won the battle of the bands, too, with some 70 of them entertaining along the routes.

The group’s members unfurled banners en route and at the finish that read "Change Chevron" while offering other runners "I’m Running for Human Rights" stickers.

Said race director Brant Kotch: "We sold them a license to run their race. They had a right to run in the race, and that’s what they did." But he added: "Chevron does wonderful things for this city and our event. I don’t think they should be called to task in this setting."

The group came from Northern California to protest what it claims has been Chevron’s failure to clean up toxic sludge deposited in Ecuador’s rain forest over 26 years of drilling there.

Building a reputation

Make no mistake about it: In track and field circles, the Chevron Houston Marathon is big time.

"This has become one of America’s biggest and best marathons," said Mary Wittenberg, race director of the New York City Marathon. "It is a tremendous credit to the team that is here, Steven Karpas and Brant Kotch and their whole team."

Wittenberg wasn’t alone in her visit to Houston. Representatives from U.S. Track and Field and the Chicago Marathon were among those in attendance to observe and take notes.

Wittenberg said her marathon can learn a thing or two from the Houston race.

"I’m totally impressed," said Wittenberg, who was in attendance with her son, Harry. "I think Houston has done a great job with hospitality, making runners feel like home.

It’s a very fan- and runner-friendly setup here."

Repeat after me

Sabra Harvey claimed her second EP5K in a row, posting a winning time of 20:32 that she found disappointing.

She ran a 19:43 in 2009, and did we mention she’s 60 years old?

"It wasn’t as fast I wanted it to be, no," said Harvey, who runs with the Houston Striders. "It felt fast when I was running, but the time didn’t show that. I’m not really sure why."

The men’s champ, Mitch Sanders, was also a repeat winner. The Baylor graduate was victorious with a time of 16:00, 18 seconds worse than last year.

"A lot of turns in this race, so I slowed down a bit," Sanders said. "I thought it was going to be a little faster, but you can never tell with road races — my fastest on a track is 14:45."

Master-ful

Sean Wade won the marathon in 2003 and the male masters in 2007. The last two years, the Houstonian has captured the masters half marathon.

This year, though, his goal was to simply provide a pace for the women’s marathon.

"The plan was to drop out at 25, 30K and not finish," Wade, 43, said. "But I felt so good … I hate to look a gift horse in the mouth, so …"

So he ended up winning the race, running a 2:33:23 without any sort of serious training, which is convenient because that sort of wear and tear wrecks his body. Wade estimates he runs about an hour a day, and while that won’t shave seconds off his time, it still allows him to be fresh when he decides to run two-and-a-half hours.

"I know I can survive it if I have to," Wade said. "So I actually learned something today."

On the women’s side, Heidy Lozano, 46, prevailed in a time of 2:56:12, and afterwards, the 2007 Boston Marathon masters winner was overcome with emotion. She was running on behalf of her 11-year-old nephew Christopher Joseph Schindler, who died in 2004 from mitochondrial disease.

"Today, I felt his spirit with me," Lozano said. "I was very inspired, and I didn’t want to let him down."